Major Website Mistakes Improve your site

[ThePhenomenalDream 0]

To be honest I HATE overloads on exclamation points. EX:Welcome to my site!!! I hope you enjoy the stay and check out our forums, media, c00l picz, and other stuff!!!This is the c00l pics page where we keep funny and c00l pics!(insert picture) LOL!(insert picture) (gif of man rolling on ground) HILARIOUS!!!!!!(HUGE pics that breaks the table and pretty much ruins the pafe) ROLFLFLOLAMAO!!!I really do despise pages like that...

[Chesso 0]

I am a bit late on this topic but I would like to add something too.For image sizes I personally use the free version of Ultimate Paint and/or GIF Movie Gear.I generally open the image file Ultimate Paint and tell it to save it as a PNG file with a pallete that adjusts itself for the image (as opposed 256bit, 16bit etc), with no other options selected and for website images I get pretty small images that you can't tell the difference in appereance but can in size .GIF Movie Gear is good for messing with GIF files generally but supports alot of other image formats too. I mostly use it for optomizing GIF images and it does a good job of it too.I also have Photoshop but it's export options are a bit bleh (much like Windows Movie Maker).These 2 might be worth a mention as alternatives for atleast image format/compression?

[Arbitrary 0]

Yeah, I've got to agree on the image format/compression part needing a good amount of attention. A lot of sites would do much better if they checked the sites through one of those fake dial-up connections. I think there was a Java applet that could fake a dial-up connection to test your site...Anyways, just because the sitemaker has Broadband does not mean he/she should automatically assume everyone else does too.

 

Also, sometimes for image galleries people decide to just put the big image there and then resize it with the html properties of height and width. But that can be really annoying because the user still has to download the big image, and it's not just one big image in this case. So the *cough*preview*cough* images are actually killing the user's computer. The webmaster shouldn't be lazy in this case--they should get one of those mass image resizing programs and resize all their gallery images.

[Vyoma 0]

Yeah, I've got to agree on the image format/compression part needing a good amount of attention. A lot of sites would do much better if they checked the sites through one of those fake dial-up connections. I think there was a Java applet that could fake a dial-up connection to test your site...Anyways, just because the sitemaker has Broadband does not mean he/she should automatically assume everyone else does too.

 

Also, sometimes for image galleries people decide to just put the big image there and then resize it with the html properties of height and width. But that can be really annoying because the user still has to download the big image, and it's not just one big image in this case. So the *cough*preview*cough* images are actually killing the user's computer. The webmaster shouldn't be lazy in this case--they should get one of those mass image resizing programs and resize all their gallery images.

 

I was just wondering here, if resize on the fly using PHP would help the dialup users. I mean, when someone uses PHP to resize the image, and then show it in the preview - then would the user actually require to load the full image? I doubt it because PHP is serverside, and only the resized image would be passed to the user browser.

 

But I may be wrong, and if that is the case, someone will come along and correct me.

[lemonkiss 0]

Quite Helpful. I'll be sure to keep those in mind when I start building my site.

[Afro-Savvy 0]

This is some good stuff (for beginners like myself) thanks alot. I probably would have made half of those mistakes lol.. But, about the loading time, how do you know what loads fast onto a page, and what doesn't? I mean, I have high speed internet, so there might be allot of differences.. All im asking really is, which are the codes, or languages (javascript, html, css, etc) that are the most efficient?

[Moon Child 0]

It's amazing because a lot of people who fist get into web designing or just create a site for the fun of it do those mistakes. I would think the first time around everyone at least makes three or four of them, but hopefully if they're really serious about it they'll improve on it and take in the criticism that people give.

[Chesso 0]

Yup, but when you have a good and easily found reference to begin with, you won't have to suffer through so many of those mistakes.

[lonebyrd 0]

I found alot of this very helpful. One thing that totally sticks out for me is loading time. When I made my first website, I didn't give it much thought. I didn't have alot of images, but on my broadband conection, It didn't phase me much. Now with my new site, I am using dial-up, so I can really tell what slows it down. And I whole-heartedly agree with the horizontal scroll bar. Man I hate going to a page that I can't read by just looking at it all. I'm guilty of making bad color choices on my page early on, and after looking at it awhile it was just awful. I believe color choice is VERY important. If someone visits your site and can bearly read it, or the colors are just too outragous, who is going to stay?

[mortalmatt 0]

Those are really good tips for beginners. I agree with what you said about subdomains. It is great that Xisto gives a subdomain, but I hope to get a domain for myself soon. I have problems of thinking of a good domain name though, hehe

[Free Website Designing 0]

Ill add one more.When using Frontage, don't use layers. The layers look different in Internet Explorer and Avant Browser than in Firefox and Netscape. So don't use layers. Use tables instead. A lot more work, but will look a lot nicer for other people.

[korireed 0]

These are excellent tips for beginners! This is great for those who have not had any Web Design classes what-so-ever.However, for those of us that HAVE had these classes, all these things sound oh-so familiar.

[MediYama 0]

Heh, that's some cool tips. However sometimes it's hard to adjust the website to the user's greatest preferences.

[ossanzi 0]

i made some of them but realized later this topic is very usefulthanks anyway

[mist1405241549 0]

Lets face it...... all these things that have been described are afflictions of first time web designers. Usually people who have just learned basic html/dhtml and are copying codes from other sites like dynamicdrive.com. The cheesey color schemes and other design problems are reflections of what the web-designer thinks is cool rather than what is pleasing to the eye. A tip for up and coming webdesigners.........If you are making a site which you want other to visit.......look at the site from their perspective, make sure it loads nicely, it is pleasing to the eye, and doesn't disturb the users other activities.